03/10/2009

MEDIA ADVISORY: Ohio State President Gee to Launch Tree Extension Program, Tour OARDC Industry Partnerships March 11-12 in Wooster

Writer:

Mauricio Espinoza
espinoza.15@osu.edu
(330) 202-3550

Source:

OARDC Director's Office
oardc@osu.edu
(330) 263-3701

WOOSTER, Ohio — Ohio State University President Gordon Gee will visit the Wooster campus of the Ohio Agricultural Research and Development Center (OARDC) March 11-12 to learn about various economic development initiatives and meet with community and industry officials.

On Wednesday, at 1 p.m., Gee will join Davey Tree Expert Company general manager Greg Ina in planting a scarlet buckeye tree. The event will launch OSU Extension’s “Why Trees Matter: Next STEP” Signature Program — a research and outreach initiative that uses science and information technology to show the benefits of community trees and calculate the dollar value of their environmental functions. University specialists and Ohio's green industry work together in this program.

Other highlights of Gee’s tour include:

• Visit to Schmack Bioenergy, which manages anaerobic digestion of Akron’s municipal solid waste and has established operations on the OARDC campus to optimize new biomass-conversion technologies (Wednesday, 11 a.m.).

• Guest-speaker appearance at the Wayne Economic Development Council’s annual breakfast (Thursday, 8 a.m.).

• Meeting with Casey Hoy, Kellogg Endowed Chair in Agroecosystems Management Program, to talk about projects related to building local food networks in Ohio (Thursday, 9:30 a.m.).

Reporters are welcome to attend. Please contact Mauricio Espinoza, (330) 621-6541 or espinoza.15@osu.edu, for more information.

OARDC and OSU Extension are the research and outreach arms, respectively, of Ohio State’s College of Food, Agricultural, and Environmental Sciences.

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